Tag Archives: Carson Tinker

As the Alabama Crimson Tide football team gathered in Birmingham for its annual banquet to not only celebrate its SEC Championship and season as a whole, but also to receive confirmation that the Tide will be playing Notre Dame in the BCS National Championship, there were also some personal awards to give out.

Offensive lineman Barrett Jones, offensive lineman Chance Warmack and defensive lineman Damion Square were named team captains and will have their hand and footprints planted in cement near Denny Chimes at A-Day in 2013.

Here is a list of the other awards and the players who received them.

Most Valuable Player

Linebacker C.J. Mosley. Mosley led the team in tackles by a longshot with 99, towering above Trey Depriest, who is in second with 56. Mosley also tied the school record for career defensive touchdowns, with three. Mosley’s interception and 16-yard touchdown return against Michigan was his third, tying the mark set by Antonio Langham (1990-1993).

Here are the key notes from the media guide UA handed out prior to Alabama’s first ever meeting in football with the Florida Atlantic Owls.

Streaking: Alabama has scored 94 unanswered points dating back to the third quarter of the Michigan game.

Been There, Done That: Alabama has eight players that saw action on both the 2009 and 2011 national title winning teams, including three players that started at least two games in both seasons: Barrett Jones, Michael Williams and Nico Johnson. Damion Square, Jeremy Shelley, Carson Tinker, Chance Warmack and Robert Lester also saw action in both seasons.

Week In, Week Out Fixture: Chance Warmack, Carson Tinker and Robert Lester are tied for having the most consecutive starts, all at 29. Other notables include Cade Foster at 28, D.J. Fluker at 19 and AJ McCarron and Damion Square at 16.

Drawing Connections: While this is both Alabama’s and Saban’s first time facing Florida Atlantic (as a head coach), Saban does have experience in nonconference games against teams from the state. Alabama beat Florida International 40-14 in 2009 under the direction of Saban. His first year with the Tide also featured a 21-14 loss to Florida State.

The Last Time It Happened

Alabama hasn’t returned a kickoff for a touchdown since Trent Richardson did it at Duke in 2010 on a 91-yard effort.

No Alabama player has rushed for 250 yards since Shaun Alexander did it in Baton Rouge in 1996. No player has rushed for 250 against Alabama since Bo Jackson had 256 in the 1983 Iron Bowl.

Neither an Alabama player nor an opposing player has ever rushed for 300 yards.

Follow the Leader: C.J. Mosley leads the team with 23 tackles, 15 of them solo efforts.

This week’s Twitter Thursday is going to start off with a quick look to the next level, as center Barrett Jones tweets something that may have gotten him fined if he were to tweet it when he is in the NFL next year.

As long as we have these replacement refs, we need to give the coaches about eight challenges each.

Runningbacks: With the absence of Eddie Lacy for all of spring to the toe injury that hurt him all of last season and Blake Sims out for a spring break hip injury, the depth chart is looking like this. 1. Jalston Fowler. 2. Dee Hart.

A member of the scout team is running his reps before star recruit T.J. Yeldon. Yeldon is looking good though, he could move up soon. Nick Saban will make him earn it first though.

Wide Receivers: This has been a little bit of a revolving door, with guys going in and out of 1st and 2nd string. Today, Christion Jones, Kevin Norwood and Kenny Bell were in the No. 1 rotation. The No. 2 rotation was DeAndrew White, Danny Woodson Jr. and early enrollee Chris Black.

Offensive Line: Chance Warmack and Anthony Steen have been switching between left guard and right guard recently, probably to find the right chemistry. Here was today’s lineup, from left to right. Cyrus Kouandjio, Chance Warmack, Barrett Jones, Anthony Steen and D.J. Fluker. Jones moving to center seems to be a very good move; has been throughout spring practice, anyway.

Defensive Line: Damien Square at his end of the line is almost the only set thing here. Alabama is experimenting a lot to replace Josh Chapman in the middle, even moving Jesse Williams in there from time-to-time. The possibility of a defensive end like Williams moving also puts a big question mark on that position too.

Linebacker: Still some shuffling and battling to do here. Nico Johnson and C.J. Mosley seem to be favorites. HaSean “Ha-Ha” Clinton-Dix has seen time there, Trey Depriest has seen time there, as have Adrian Hubbard and Xzavier Dickson. I have no choice but to throw a TBD in at this position. Sure, Johnson, Mosley and DePriest have an inside track, but the positions (Mike, Sam, Jack and Will) are far from determined.

Secondary: Safeties are pretty much set with Robert Lester and Vinnie Sunseri. Obviously, no one has a set starting job, but they are the closest to locked in as anyone else on the defense.

Cornerback is going to be interesting. There is Dee Milliner, coming off of a serious improvement last season from the season before it, but newcomers Travell Dixon and Deion Belue have shown the talent necessary to play right away at Alabama. I’ve also seen HaSean “Ha-Ha” Clinton-Dix see some reps at every secondary position.

So it’s safe to say the Tide is still experimenting in the secondary. That’s not surprising though, since Saban always holds his secondary to a higher standard of excellence than the rest of the team (not purposefully)

Special Teams: Long snapper Carson Tinker seems to be rather set in his starting role. The kicking situation is very fluid and the possibility of using a two-kicker system is more likely than not unless a freshman prospect blows the staff away. So, there will probably be more of Jeremy Shelley and Cade Foster in 2012 if spring practice is any indicator.

Cody Mandell’s competition from last year, Jay Williams, has left the football team to try his hand at baseball. So, it looks like Mandell is without a rival for the punting job, barring a newcomer that proves himself.